[p2p-research] discussing money on ning

[Kevin Carson]

On 3/13/09, Michel Bauwens <michelsub2004 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Dear Sepp,
>
> For a long time, I have been surprised on the slow uptake on internet-based monetary systems, so unlike the steady adoption of cc's in regional and urban settings ...
>

One reason is probably that local alternative barter systems tend to
be unique (in the sense that there's a dominant one in a particular
community, rather than a bunch of different ones constantly being
started and discontinued--not to mention not being mutually
incompatible), and to be stably identified with a particular
geographical area and set of businesses.  When it comes to Internet
currencies, OTOH, there are too many different efforts to reinvent the
wheel.  Not only are many of the people engaged in such efforts not
aware of each other, and not making their systems interoperable, but
there is no reason for public confidence in deciding to use one or the
other in the assumption that it will become the standard and be around
for a long time to come.  Only when this is all sorted out and there
is a single dominant network (or at least a common standard to which
all networks will conform in order to be compatible with other
networks), will it catch on.

It seems to me the first order of business should be networking
between those engaged in creating internet-based currencies to work
out an agreement on the architecture, etc., so that they can coalesce
their efforts around some common system.

-- 
Kevin Carson
Mutualist Blog:  Free Market Anti-Capitalism
http://mutualist.blogspot.com
Studies in Mutualist Political Economy
http://www.mutualist.org/id47.html
Anarchist Organization Theory Project
http://mutualist.blogspot.com/2005/12/studies-in-anarchist-theory-of.html